User:Simtropolitan/Sandbox/HOH

Rapid deindustrialization and decline
The 1970s and 1980s were a period of cataclysmic shifts in life

While older buildings not brought up to code remain a concern in the city today, the 1970s and 1980s in Holyoke saw a dramatic surge in fires. Many of the abandoned mills, with absentee landlords and no occupants, fell into disrepair. Among the largest of these fires occurred in 1980, when the Skinner Mill burned to the ground while 2,000 onlookers gathered in the streets; the oil soaked timbers in the floor had made it especially hot and difficult for fire fights to manage. It was one of many such fires; arson crimes became such a problem that an arson squad was dedicated to investigating the ongoing trend; in 1981, 12 people died as nearly every week another building burned to the ground. In total that year 55 buildings in Holyoke were razed by fire, 48 of them were determined to be the result of arson. Despondent residents at the time coined the nickname "Holy Smokes" or "Holy Smoke City" as burnt out buildings continued to dot the city landscape.